A recent password safety study shows how long it would take a hacker to crack your passwords—saying that any 8-character password can be guessed in less than 40 minutes!
Digital technology is changing the way people work, using the cloud, AI, blockchain, the Internet of Things, and more.
In order to prevent unauthorised access to your computer and personal information, passwords serve as the first line of defence.
A strong password allows your computer to be better shielded from hackers and harmful software. Therefore, all of your online accounts should have secure passwords.
While passwords aren’t the only method to keep your information safe, a strong and unique password is the best way to stay safe online.
Alex Nette, CEO and co-founder of Hive Systems
Based on the length and complexity of a password, cybersecurity company Hive Systems’ experts developed a colourful chart to illustrate the relative strength of the password against a brute force cracking attack.
The information is based on how long it would take a hacker with average resources to decode your password hash.
According to the study, passwords with six characters can be instantly cracked, regardless of whether numbers and symbols are included.
The same is true for passwords that are 7 or 8 characters long and only contain numbers or lowercase letters. This shows how easy it is for someone to break into an online login!
However, using 18 characters made up of numbers, upper and lower case letters & symbols will ensure that your password won’t be guessed for 438 trillion years!
Trivia: World Password Day is observed annually on the first Thursday in May!
The study also discovered that technological developments over the past two years have drastically reduced the time it takes to break a password using brute force.
In 2020, it would take 8 hours to crack a password of 8 characters while today, it takes only less than 40 minutes. This phenomenon has been influenced by the increase of accessible cloud computing.
Find out more on Hive Systems’ methodology here.
Interested in cybersecurity? Read also Ways To Handle Business Email Compromise (BEC) Attacks and Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) Attacks Targeting WFH Employees